Enemy AI is being a pain!

My family just returned to playing after a long break. When we played a few years back, it seemed the enemies would mainly focus on who was attacking and you could catch a break by passing or casting non-attack spells. Now it seems that the enemies target the weakest one and pound that one over and over. Last night it took us forever to beat a few sharks because they killed one member and continued to target that one member as soon as we would heal them. In one instance I used Regenerate, followed by 3 sprites... all went to waste because as soon as my friend had the slightest bit of health, they were dead again... So often we had to resort to fleeing and re-entering the battle just to be able to get some health built back up. It's not like we were over-matched, we are both level 53 and at times had a level 38 assisting. Other than this (major) gripe, we're having fun being back and checking out all that has changed since we were last really here.

My family just returned to playing after a long break. When we played a few years back, it seemed the enemies would mainly focus on who was attacking and you could catch a break by passing or casting non-attack spells. Now it seems that the enemies target the weakest one and pound that one over and over. Last night it took us forever to beat a few sharks because they killed one member and continued to target that one member as soon as we would heal them. In one instance I used Regenerate, followed by 3 sprites... all went to waste because as soon as my friend had the slightest bit of health, they were dead again... So often we had to resort to fleeing and re-entering the battle just to be able to get some health built back up. It's not like we were over-matched, we are both level 53 and at times had a level 38 assisting. Other than this (major) gripe, we're having fun being back and checking out all that has changed since we were last really here.

Welcome back~ AFAIK, that's still how it works, but things have changed since Celestia was released.

If you and your friends enter at different times, enemies will attack based on the order you enter the fight. Enemies 1 and 2 will attack P1; enemy #3 will attack P2, and enemy #4 will attack P3. P4 will not be attacked, if she plays defensively.

Of course, this can change any time, based on who draws the most Aggro (short for Aggression, also called Ag): any spell, including heals and pet casts, can draw Ag, but it depends on:

1) spell rank, and2) boost of the wizard attacking/healing.

Example #1

There are 4 level 90 wizards in a battle (storm, life, and balance, and fire); all 4 enter the ring together.

On round 3, Ice casts a Satyr (rank 4 heal) on herself. It gives 860 base health which, when combined with her stat boost, heals for 963; all enemies will now attack the Ice wizard.

On round 4, the Storm wizard casts a Satyr on herself; with her boost, it heals her for 946 health. Because her heal was less than that of the Ice wizard, the enemies will continue to target the Ice wizard.

On round 8, the Storm wizard casts Sirens (rank 9) and the Ice wizard casts Frost Giant (rank 7). Sirens is a higher rank spell than Frosty, and Storm's damage boost is higher; therefore, the enemies will now attack the Storm wizard.

Thereafter, if Storm plays defensively and Ice plays offensively, enemies will target the Storm wizard until Ice 1) gets an unblocked critical hit, 2) uses a higher-rank spell, or 3) uses their Taunt spell at a higher rank than that of the highest-rank spell that was played.

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Defeat does not clear Ag. If, in Example #2, Storm gets defeated before Ice draws more Ag, the enemies will attack Ice only until Storm is revived; if Ice casts a Regenerate (rank 5) on Storm, the enemies will immediately target Storm again, unless Ice gets a critical, at which point the enemies would attack the Ice wizard. But, if Storm fled immediately and ported back, enemies would target the Ice wizard.